This is a brief guide to researching records of nurses who served with the British army. These records are varied and can be complicated. They are also incomplete. While most of the relevant records can be found at The National Archives, some material is also held by the Ministry of Defence and the Red Cross.
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What do I need to know before I start?
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Try to find out:
- the name of the person
- the name of the nursing service
- a geographical location and date range to help focus your search
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What records can I see online?
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Nursing service records (1902-1922)
Search and download service records (WO 399) for nurses who served in the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAINMS), the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (Reserve) QAIMNS(R) and the Territorial Force Nursing Service (TFNS) on our website (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.).
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Campaign medals (1793-1949)
Search by name online in Campaign medal and award rolls (WO 100) using Ancestry.co.uk (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.). You will need to know the campaign and the relevant nursing service to use these records. These do not usually contain biographical information.
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Campaign medal records (1914-1920)
Search and download (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.) the index cards to First World War campaign medals awarded to nurses (WO 372) on our website. Use the keywords 'Nurse', 'Voluntary Aid Detachment' or 'Queen Alexandra's', as well as providing a surname to help your search.
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What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?
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Recipients of the Royal Red Cross (1883-1994)
Consult the registers of the recipients of the Royal Red Cross in record series WO 145 to find a person who received this award.
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To access these records you will either need to visit us, pay for research (£there will be a charge) or, where you can identify a specific record referencea unique set of letters and numbers identifying a document in The National Archives, order a copy (£there will be a charge).
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What records can I find in other archives and organisations?
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Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps service records (1939-1945)
Visit the Veterans UK website for information about how to request a summary of a service recorda document recording the career of an individual in the armed forces from the Ministry of Defence. These are not available to members of the general public, though next of kin may request access to them.
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Voluntary Aid Detachment records (1914-1920, 1939-1945)
Contact the British Red Cross museum and archives for the service record of a person who served in a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) during the First or Second World War.
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What other resources will help me find information?
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Websites
Browse the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service website for information on British Army nurses before the First World War.
View a selection of transcriptions of British military nurses records on Scarlet finders website.
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Census
Royal Navy nurses
Royal Air Force nurses